Favorites Friday

Favorite's Friday

Hello Zombi-corns, lets see the favorite's of the week.

So so sorry for the huge delay in this but I will be talking about my absolute favorite watercolor paper in this post as well as why you should be buying high quality material for your art.

 

So probably my most favorite medium is watercolor, I love it's raw look and feel and is very relaxing to use. Some of you may've noticed in some of my most recent watercolor paintings that the paper was wrinkling or warped in spots. That is because it was cheap light weight paper. I believe it was a canson roll of watercolor paper, it was about $30. Now if you're doing large multimedia pieces I think this paper would be good, or if your using it for mostly dry mediums. But if your going to be doing wet on wet painting then this is not for you.

 You can see the warping in these in progress shots. The paper is completely dry in these.      

 

Probably the biggest problem with this was stretching it to get it to lay flat, this is where most of the warping took place. Also if you blended too much on a wet area the paper would start to disintegrate.

But I finally got a paycheck that I could use for art supplies and I got a three pack of Arches 300 lb cold press watercolor paper from dickblick.com.

This paper is my absolute favorite let's go over some pros and cons of it.

Pros:

Paint can grip onto it.

 



 



 

 It has a deckled edge.

 

 

 

It (virtually) doesn't warp.

 

Colors stay vibrant through drying. And blacks stay rich and are not chalky.

 

 

 

 

Cons:

Cost,

three sheets from dickblick was around $50, and shipping. You can find a 5 pack on Amazon but there is a small about of uncertainty when buying from them, coming from experience when I've ordered items from their and gotten the wrong item or it never showed up. 

 

Bowing

While it wont warp or crease like the lighter weight paper it will bow off the surface if you are wetting a large area. Because of it's stiffness though it's not much of a deterrant for me.

 

Griping paint

If you are an abstract painter or are wanting a lot of running paint and drips then this may not be for you., The reason I like this paper is because I can wet a small area and the water wont run down the page because of the paper's absorbency but some people may not like that.

 

Deckled Edges.

The deckled edge is great for presentation and gives it a high quality finesse but if you are doing an open composition and are blending out of the page the deckled edge can cause the paint to bloom if you are not careful, usually if I have this happen I can blend it out.

 

 

So there is a few facts for anyone wanting to experiment with this, I will also show how I plan on mounting these for an upcoming student show in the next coming weeks.

 

Now why to buy the higher quality stuff than buying budget friendly. Well it's simply because it will enhance your artwork as well as enhance it to other people. Most of my teachers grade very critically on materials and presentation, though they do all understand that we are all poor college kids.

But just like trying to budget to buy healthier options at the grocery store, you need to budget yourself to be able to buy the right supplies especially if this is what field you will be going into in life. Also you will usually find that higher quality art supplies respond and work better than cheaper materials.

 

Well that's it for this week, I will try and be more attentive to the blog, this week is spring break and I am planning on doing a lot of art things; painting, speed drying paintings, and framing pieces for a show. I will let you all know how it goes I hope you have a good weekend and spring break!

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Favorite's Friday

  

Favorite's Friday

Hello Zombi-corns, let's look at the things that helped me make it through the week.

Happy New Year, I recently bought some art supplies and beauty supplies with my Christmas money and I am so excited to share with you.

First off the art supplies, all from Hobby Lobby.

 

   First off and what I'm most excited for these three oval mop round brushes in sizes 3/4", 1/2", and 6, and all from one of my favorite brands, Masters Touch. The smallest brush I purchased was a replacement for one that I used constantly in my Painting class this semester, and I was absolutely thrilled to find bigger sizes. These are perfect for oil painting and skin, or extremely smooth blending. If you do use these with oil paint I would say that you need to use a specific brush cleaner such as the one pictured above in the bottom right corner. These brushes are incredibly soft and will start to shed very easily with heavy paints if not cared for properly.

 

 These are new to me and I mostly bought these for the holder to use with charcoal. These are pastel sticks from Master's Touch. I have been experimenting with them. Here is something I did with them for example.

 These are very comparable to graphite I think but denser and less messy. The density makes them a little harder to blend but overall good for sketching I think. They do not get as dark as charcoal though, when I tried to layer them they only stayed a dense gray and would almost scratch the layer under it off.

This is a Hake Brush, I've never used one but seen people use it. This is going to be used for drafting, which means I will use it with charcoal or any drawing medium that I may get eraser shreds on and don't want to smudge. You can get a larger version of this and is actually for drafting called a dusting/drafting brush. I liked this for the better control.

This little guy is an essential for anyone doing charcoal or large drawings and want to blend/smudge without riddling their pieces with fingerprints. I have used this before, I will probably cut this into smaller pieces for my tool box. I prefer to use this for smudging charcoal because after a while the charcoal and friction of the paper will irritate my hands. You can get large pieces of this online, it may be marketed as something for car cleaning but it is the same material. I'll also be experimenting with other types of leather for drawing.

   And lastly, a new travel sketchbook that exhibits my insatiable wanderlust and a canvas pad for oil studies. I was going to try and test the canvas pad with oils and my new oval mop brushes but I didn't want to bring in my oil paints, partly because the weather got bad and they are in my car and because it stinks up my house and my mom doesn't like it. I will test these out when I get back to my dorm tho, I will probably pull the sheets out and tape it to my drawing board like I would any other paper.

 

Now I didn't show a detail shot about the brush shampoo because I have talked about it before, if you want to look into this wonderful brush shampoo that I highly recommend you can go here and read about it.

 

Now for the ULTA haul, this is all cruelty free as well.

 

So from the left I have a staple, it is the Organix Argan Oil of Morocco shampoo, skinfix Hydrating Moisturizer, and Freemens Golden Grain Brightening Mask. On the top from top to bottom I have NYX retractable lip liner in Nude Pink MPL06, Palladio lip liner in Black Berry, and NYX brow pencil.

Now some of these products are not certified by the leaping bunny but they all say "not tested on animals" except the black berry lip liner.

Here are swatches of the lip liners and eyebrow pencil as well as the NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams I wanted to match with the lip liners.

 This lip cream is Cannes and is one of my favorites and most used.

 This lip cream is Copenhagen and is slightly more red than this lip liner but I think it will work.

 

If you've never used NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams and like long lasting matte lipstick then I would highly recommend these, they are very pigmented and have amazing wear *once dry. I would buy them in store instead of online though because I've noticed most websites have a color difference in their pictures.

Also I have a few resolutions.

1. One good deed a day.

2. Smile

3. Create more art outside of class.

And obviously don't be a little piggy as much.

Did you make any New Year's Resolutions?

That's pretty much it for now, did you buy some fun things with Christmas money, do you want any more in depth reviews of any of these products? Feel free to ask in the comments below. Also before I leave here is a piece I have been working on recently.

 

Sorry for the weird orange tint.

 

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Motivation Monday

Motivational Monday

Hello Zombie-corns, nobody likes Monday's lets fix that!

 

Here is your motivational quote for the day.

 

 

 

 

This is very close to my highschool senior quote "If you think you can or you can't your right." I love saying's like these because it is true. If you put limits on yourself then you will never achieve anything. Never put yourself into a box of limitations, you will soon see that you are missing out on life and others will see it too.

 

 

Also be on the lookout for this week's Favorite's Friday I will have an art supply haul up as well as a small ULTA haul.

In other news here is a few projects I've been working on, nothing too big just some playing around.

 

 

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You can also follow my pinterest page to see all the magnificent things I find from healthy recipes to art to wedding planning.

Motivational Monday

Motivational Monday

Hello Zombicorns, nobody likes Monday's lets fix that!

I hope this Monday is a good one for you, hopefully you don't have classes or maybe it's the last one of the semester. Either way the holiday's are upon us, whether it's Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or the Star Wars premiere I hope that your wallet isn't too sad and that you remember to value the real things that the holiday's stand for.

But here is a motivational quote for your week.

 

 

Also for any of my art followers, remember that during this break to keep making art, even if it's just a sketch. As well as try and find artists, online or in galleries, that inspire you and are similar to your style.  I think I'm am going to try and start doing a sketch/drawing a day. I use to draw all the time and it definitely helped my art and my process but with school and life it's been harder to pull out the sketchbook and pencils. I will keep you updated on my personal projects as they go.

 

I hope you enjoy your week and have a great time with your holiday celebrations!

 

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You can also follow my pinterest page to see all the magnificent things I find from healthy recipes to art to wedding planning.

 

Motivational Monday

Motivational Monday!

Hello Zombicorns, nobody likes Monday's let's fix that!

Here is your motivational quote for the day.

For me that would be the sound of rain and storms, crows calling out to each other, leaves scraping the ground, and the sound of cars going down the highway.

Also what's been giving me a lot of inspiration are these adorable geometric animals.

source

I love the simplicity of this totem as well as the color palette. For some reason I have been using a lot of, and finding inspiration in, geometric shapes and foxes in my artwork lately.

Also here's the finished result of my collage.

  You can follow my facebook to get updates on the new blogs.

You can also follow my pinterest page to see all the magnificent things I find from healthy recipes to art to wedding planning.

Motivational Monday

Motivational Mondays

Hello Zombicorns, nobody likes Monday's lets fix that.

 

So sorry for skipping last week I have had an emotional and hard time lately, but I'm trying to just keep moving forward. Also here's a work in progress shot of a new painting.

 

Can you guess what it's inspired by?

 

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You can also follow my pinterest page to see all the magnificent things I find from healthy recipes to art to wedding planning.

 

Motivational Mondays

Motivational Monday

Hello Zombi-corns nobody likes Monday's lets fix that.

Here is your motivation quote for the day.

 

And another from one of my favorite artists.

 

 

Also some things that have been inspiring me in my art.

This picture of Pablo Picasso is a great example of a project we have in my drawing class.

 

 

And a lot of white stags that ignite the elven heart in me.

You can find all the sources of these images in my inspiration board on my pinterest page, which is linked below.

 

Also something that has been super inspiring is a game for mobile devices called Monuments Valley.

 

This Game is absolutely gorgeous and also has an amazing soundtrack, and its free through amazon, these are some screenshots I took from my gameplay.

I absolutely love totem.

 

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Illustration Thursday

Illustration Thursday

Hello ZombieUnicorns, today hopefully starts a new theme, Illustration Thursday where I'll share an illustration inspired by my week.

Heres the Illustration for this week

 

"Anxiety"

So this week was very busy with jumping right into the regular routine of school as well as my design job, which up till now I have been by myself and been given about three projects every day I was there.

There was also some trouble with the flute section leader and assigning a new assistant section leader. Lots of frustration and condescending people this week, everything that I needed to kick start my anxiety and stress. Now I've never been diagnosed with anxiety but if I had any of them its probably generalized anxiety or social anxiety, or a mix. And my drawing is an interpretation of how it feels, the predatory bad thoughts constantly at war with the wise and thoughtful crane.

That's about all for today, not really feeling great either so I'm gonna have to cut it short.

 

I hope you had a better day than I did, and don't forget to paint the roses red.

 

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You can also follow my pinterest page to see all the magnificent things I find from healthy recipes to art to wedding planning.

 

Motivational Monday

Motivational Monday!

Hello ZombieUnicorns, nobody likes Monday's let's fix that!

So Monday, quite busy for me already, and slightly stressful. I almost am out of coffee, I'll probably use the last of it tomorrow morning, had a ridiculous work load, got really discouraged during painting class, I have to take a loan out and our first football game is next week. But I am going to try and stay calm.

Here's the motivational quote for this week!

 

Also some other things I found inspiring was a documentary I watched called "The Artist is Present".

 

The documentary follows Marina Abramovic' as she prepares for a MOMA exhibit highlighting her career in performance art. It shows how she trains the other artists to reenact her most famous pieces as well as her very moving performance that takes place for the three months of the exhibit.

One of the most moving parts of the documentary, during the first day of the exhibit her ex-husband and partner in many performances takes part as a viewer. Marina smiling and reaching across the table, later removed, to share a moment with someone who she shared a life with.

Now if you have any problems with nudity or violence then you should probably stray away from this, but she talks of how she stayed driven  after so much sorrow, to perform and create. It's a must watch for any artist, no matter the medium.

 

Also as I was in painting class having a small bought of anxiety from work and a rushed day, I decided to listen on audible to In Real Life by Joey Graceffa. It's very relatable and easy to read so I would suggest it to anyone. He talks about his road to youtube before youtube even existed, a toxic parent, divorce, bullying, special education, and coming out, I believe this is something that should be in school libraries because I feel many teens could relate to his story.

 

But I will also definitely be doing some yoga tonight to help with the anxiety and stress of Monday, as well as work on my handstand, which is yet to be an actual hand stand.

I hope you have a good week and don't let the stress get to you. Tomorrow I will be talking about buying textbooks and why you should never get them from the bookstore.

 

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a good rest of your day, and don't forget to paint the roses red.

You can follow my facebook to get updates on the new blogs.

You can also follow my pinterest page to see all the magnificient things I find from healthy recipes to art to wedding planning.